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There is an ongoing debate about the 'usefulness' of the standard machine smoking regimen for cigarettes defined by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and adopted in principal by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). More intense smoking regimens result in much higher smoke yields, and these higher yields have been suggested to be much closer to human smoke uptake. However, it appears that more intense smoking regimens are less efficient in detecting possible differences in the yield of toxicants. Intense smoking regimens reproducibly decrease the concentration of toxicants in the smoke per unit mass of total particulate matter, tar, or nicotine, most likely as a result of a more complete combustion. The toxicant concentration reaches the same plateau for different cigarette types under the intense smoking regimens. As such, differences in toxicant concentrations due to product changes, which are observable under ISO or FTC conditions, may disappear under intensive smoking regimens. Intense machine smoking regimens might be used for regulatory compliance and consumer information. However, when evaluating the toxicological impact of cigarette product changes, especially to avoid increases in toxicity, they should not be used as a standard (or at least not as the only standard). The type of smoking regimen has to be carefully considered and aligned to the underlying question. Depending on the question a combination of the reviewed regimens or even other approaches might be appropriate.
PMIScience.com is operated by Philip Morris International for the purpose of publishing and disseminating scientific information about Philip Morris International’s efforts in support of its smoke-free product portfolio. This site is a global site for use by scientists, the public health and regulatory communities, and other stakeholders with an interest in tobacco policy. The purpose of this site is not advertising or marketing, nor is it directed at any specific market. It is not intended for use by consumers. New tobacco products sold in the United States are subject to FDA regulation; therefore the content of this site is not intended to make, and nor should it be construed as making, any product related claims in the United States without proper FDA authorization.
Reduced Risk Products ("RRPs”) is the term we use to refer to products that present, are likely to present, or have the potential to present less risk of harm to smokers who switch to these products versus continuing smoking. PMI has a range of RRPs in various stages of development, scientific assessment and commercialization. All of our RRPs are smoke-free products that deliver nicotine with far lower quantities of harmful and potentially harmful constituents than found in cigarette smoke.